It is annoying that it is only available in the US. Or actually, the articles didn't seem to mention if it would only be available in the US and I cannot help but wonder if MR was perhaps not realizing a lot of people in the rest of the world remain out of the loop.

Jaapjan, this question came also up and according to the Sony rep, expansion outside North America is something they are looking into, but it's currently not feasible due to the complicated licensing schemes they have with their publisher partners. In other words, and this is only my interpretation, Sony would only want to sell the Reader outside the States if they were also able to directly sell e-books along with it.